Shelley, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Shelley, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Shelley lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Shelley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shelley — the short answer
Shelley, Idaho: USDA zone 5b, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Shelley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shelley's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shelley
Each reading below is measured for Shelley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShelley runs about 157 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredShelley sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Shelley is in
Shelley sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Shelley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bingham County.
What Grows in Shelley
Every plant below cleared Shelley's own zone 5b and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shelley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Shelley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shelley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHELLY SECTION-MILEPOST 175.5Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SHELLEY SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CIRCLE K #367Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FOOD PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- JONES PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DISTRICT #1 ROAD & BRIDGE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HOBBS MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FORMER SHELLEY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- THE PILLSBURY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BOWMAN SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BASIC AMERICAN FOODS SHELLEYToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- BASIC AMERICAN FOODS SHELLEYBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shelley's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Shelley.
Total Sites
413
within ~10 miles of Shelley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shelley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shelley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shelley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 254 sites within ~10 miles of Shelley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Shelley
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shelley average
Your land is one point inside Shelley
Everything above resolves to Shelley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Shelley Average
Shelley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Shelley
- ●One soil character for all of Shelley
- ●Frost dates read at Shelley's scale: May 3 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shelley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shelley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shelley, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shelley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shelley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shelley average
How we know this about Shelley
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Shelley’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Shelley
When does frost risk typically end in Shelley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shelley typically lands around May 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 24.
When is the first frost in Shelley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shelley typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shelley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shelley sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 23, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shelley?
The federal record around Shelley is a meaningful one — 413 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (254), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Shelley?
From about Sep 7 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shelley's scale — its 5b band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shelley's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Shelley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shelley's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,463 acres it covers and 413 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shelley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shelley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 7 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 413 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shelley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shelley's boundary and the 1,463 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shelley's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shelley's 1,463 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bingham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bingham County
- The growing challenges every Idaho grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Idaho
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bingham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shelley's 1,463 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shelley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,463 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Shelley-wide figureread your own land →